In this article we explain how perceptual control of synthesis processes can be achieved through a multidisciplinary approach relating physical and signal properties of sound sources to evocations induced by sounds. This approach is applied to environmental and abstract sounds in 3 different experiments. In the first experiment a perceptual control of synthesized impact sounds evoking sound sources of different materials and shapes is presented. The second experiment describes an immersive environmental synthesizer simulating different kinds of environmental sounds evoking natural events such as rain, waves, wind and fire. In the last example motion evoked by abstract sounds is investigated. A tool for describing perceived motion through drawings is proposed in this case.